Could I Survive Unemployment?

I had the last week off work and with all the talk of unemployment queues in Australia growing over the next year or so, I wanted to do a little experiment to find out whether I could make a liveable amount of money in a week for doing surveys, focus groups and mystery shopping.

The cheques from Global Test Market and Rewards Central would certainly have helped, but realistically mystery shopping and focus groups would have to be the avenues for making a wage for the week....

So how did I go?

Here is a summary:

Monday - Mystery Shopping Assignments with GapBuster $47 (3 hours)
Tuesday - Mystery Shopping Assignment with HOED $68 (3 hours)
Wednesday - Mystery Shopping Assignments with RMSA $75 + ($100 Products) + Mystery Shopping Assignment with Service Integrity $15 (6 hours)
Thursday - Mystery Shopping Assignments with GapBuster $75 (4 hours)
Friday - Mystery Shopping Assignments with RMSA $30 (2 hours)

Total for the Week: $310 + $100 in products for about 18 hours work.

During the week I also did approx $40 (in cash and gift vouchers) worth of surveys and put together the bones of a new web site for a friend of mine. (www.freeexport.info)

Is it a weekly wage? the minimum working wage is $560 odd dollars a week, and the unemployment benefit is about $240 a week, so I guess you could survive on doing mystery shops, surveys and focus groups.......

Cheques this week from Global Test Market and Rewards Central

Cheques from Global Test Market $61.42 and Rewards Central $50

Its alway nice to receive cheques in the mail rather than bills. On Friday, I was lucky enough to open the mailbox to find two nice cheques. It really is a nice feeling to get money in the mail.

Enough of the nice already....

Excited...Test driving a Sports Car tommorow.

Getting paid $35 to test drive a sports car tommorow, should be good :)

Email me for the company to register with to get this opportunity.

General Comments

Didn't win $53 Million in Tuesday's lotto?

Yeah I know, it would have been nice to be a $53 Million winner wouldn't it? Well maybe next time eh....you can still get a $5 credit to enter the next draw by joining Ozlottories.

And until I do win the big prize, there is still paid surveys, rewards programs and mystery shopping to do and it might not be enough to retire to Bermuda on but its very real. Another $20 Bunnings Voucher courtesy of Valued Opinions ordered from their web site today :)

Some money from Ciao

I have previously blogged that Ciao (Greenfield Online) was a bit miserally in the amount they pay for each survey. In fact they do offer many surveys that are listed as being 93 cents of a 20 minute survey.

In recent weeks I have noticed a few surveys with higher amounts such as $5 for a 15 minute survey and $3 for a 10 minute survey.

So I have done a couple of these and frankly if you have been doing surveys for a while the time quoted to fill them out is very much on the high side. While I was at it, I tried a few of the 93 cent ones (yes, I was bored:) and they didn't take anywhere near 20 minutes.

So although I still wouldn't recommend that you do the 93 cent ones if you have anything better to do, I guess its a better return for your time than playing texas hold em poker on facebook......

I have just transferred $17.65 to my paypal account from Ciao (Greenfield Online) for maybe 1 hour of survey doodling over about the last 2-3 weeks.

$90 MILLION OZLOTTO DRAW on TUESDAY NIGHT!

The biggest Jackpot in Lotto ever in Australia will be drawn on Tuesday night (30 June 2009). If you open an account at OzLottories today, you can get a $5 credit to enter this MEGA Draw for free...